It's Not Just For Pancakes: Tapping Into Maple Syrup

By Richard Pagoda

Nov 18, 2014

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Of all the alternatives to refined sugar, maple syrup is by far the best for you and most versatile option. Maple syrup contains beneficial nutrients and need not be used in the same quantity you would use sugar. What's more, you can use maple syrup in virtually every course in a different way, highlighting its complex flavor profile.

Maple syrup is an all-around better choice for sweetness in your diet than its refined sugar cousin. In this article, we’ll compare and contrast the production, nutritional components, and usefulness of maple syrup and refined sugar. We will also give you some new maple recipes to experience the benefits of maple syrup first hand.

Processing

Refined sugar and maple syrup both start out from natural sources. Refined sugar is produced from sugar cane or sugar beets, and maple syrup comes from the sap of the sugar maple tree. To make maple syrup, the production just entails boiling the sap, which increases the natural concentration of sweetness. Refined sugar, on the other hand, goes through a multi-stage process that strips the plant material, nutrients, and any “impurity” from the sucrose end product. This difference in production results in two vastly different products all around, but especially from a nutritional standpoint.

Nutrients

While the refining process strips sugar of its vitamin and mineral content, maple syrup maintains certain minerals through production. Maple syrup contains calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese, all of which are important minerals to the body. From cell production to maintaining healthy blood and bones, these nutrients are in high demand within your system. While adding any sweetener is not ideal, the additional nutritional benefits of maple syrup certainly make it a better choice.

Recipes

Not only is maple syrup a better choice from a nutritional standpoint, it also gives you more options from a culinary standpoint. Traditionally, maple syrup is put on breakfast or brunch meals like pancakes, waffles, or sausage, so you may not realize the true potential of syrup as an ingredient. Syrup can often be a good substitute for sugar in many recipes, making all of your favorite deserts pleasures less guilty.

These carrot oatmeal cookies, are a great example of this. Using maple syrup as a sweetener instead of sugar adds a whole new level of deliciousness to your baking.

Maple syrup also adds a great deal to many savory dishes from salmon to beans and everything in between.